By: Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA has given an assurance of its continued assistance to Ghana till the efforts at subduing maternal deaths and morbidity in the country is achieved.
In this regard, the Fund and its partners will continue with the provision of the relevant support including technical and logistics in quality human resource training and maternal healthcare to ensure safe child birth in Ghana.
The Deputy Country Director of the UNFPA, Dr. Emily Naphambo, gave the assurance in Kumasi in an interview with Radio Ghana on the sidelines of a presentation of assorted training equipment to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
UNFPA is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations and is concerned and working towards responsible reproductive health in member nations with a target to achieve Zero maternal deaths by 2030.
The training equipment donated to the KNUST forms part of the strategies being deployed by the Agency towards attainment of this goal.
The Deputy Country Representative of the UNFPA, Dr. Emily Naphambo, who led the delegation of the United Nations agency, handed over the equipment to the Vice Chancellor of the KNUST, Professor Mrs. Rita Dickson.
Dr. Naphambo explained that, untill Ghana’s unimpressive maternal deaths record, which currently stands at 320 deaths per 100 thousand live births, gets better, the UNFPA, with the support of its partners like Canada, will not relent in assisting the country in anyway possible.
Asked by how long her agency was ready to support Ghana, Dr. Naphambo quickly responded amidst giggling “as long as long as women continue to die, we’re here as UNFPA. UNFPA is a UN specializes in reproductive health and maternal deaths. As long as women are dying, we’re here, we’re nit going anywhere. Our agenda is to ensure Zero maternal deaths in 2030.”
The Director of Nursing and Midwifery at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Bannor, who witnessed the presentation, said the Ministry has identified capacity training as the most important need for quality maternal care in the country hence his appeal to local and external organizations to offer support in the development of relevant curricular for postgraduate programmes for nurses and midwives in the country.
The Deputy Registrar in charge of University Relations at the KNUST, Dr. Daniel Norris Bekoe, in thanking UNFPA for the generous assistance, described the gesture as timely for hands-on training of the would-be nurses and midwives during their practical learning sessions at school.
The equipment donated by the UNFPA, valued at 30 thousand Ghana Cedis, included cardiotoscopy machine, multipurpose manual obstetrics bed, MVA kits, Urine dilators, sets of Dilation and Curettage, assorted Thermometers, cervical dilation and, effacement, birth stimulators among others key logistics.
The items are meant for the Midwifery Skills Laboratory of the Department of Nursing if the College of Health Sciences of the KNUST.
The presentation forms part of the standing partnership between the KNUST and the UNFPA since 2011 which has also seen the UNFPA assist the KNUST to establish establish the Nursing and Midwifery School and still together, developing curricular for postgraduate courses in the two professional fields.
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